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READER REQUEST

Can you uncover any definitive
information on the number of speeding tickets issued annually per
state? How many motorists own and use a radar detector, and what
are these motorists' demographic profiles? Thank you for your kind
consideration of this topic, and keep up the great work!
Grant Dahlke
K40 Electronics
Elgin, Ill.

Dear Grant:

Short of personally calling each and every bureau directly, we
were unable to locate any data on the number of speeding tickets
issued annually per state. But we were able to find information
that you might find interesting regarding how many American drivers
nationwide are pulled over for speeding and how many of them are
ultimately ticketed.

According to a report released last year by the Bureau of
Justice Statistics, 1 in 10 of the nation's 186.3 million licensed
drivers (19.3 million individuals) got pulled over by police in
1999 (the latest year for which data is available). Of those who
were stopped, 51 percent (5 percent of all licensed drivers, or 9.9
million individuals) admitted their encounter with the law was due
to speeding. Not everyone who is pulled over for speeding winds up
making a contribution to City Hall's coffers, but a vast majority
do. In fact, 69 percent of drivers who were stopped for speeding in
1999 got a ticket. (The survey does not specifically ask why the
drivers got a ticket, only the reason they were pulled over.)

Demographically, men are 41 percent more likely than women to be
caught driving too fast: In 1999, 6.2 percent of male drivers were
stopped for speeding, compared with 4.4 percent of their female
counterparts. When women do get caught breaking the speed limit,
they're slightly more likely than men to get away with just a
warning. According to the BJS report, 67 percent of women who were
pulled over for speeding ended up with a ticket, versus 70 percent
of men. Younger drivers are the least lucky when it comes to
getting pulled over and getting a ticket: 10 percent of all drivers
under 25 were stopped for speeding in 1999, and 74 percent of those
were ticketed. Compare those figures with the 5 percent of drivers
age 25 and older who were stopped for speeding, 67 percent of whom
got a ticket.

To find out who uses a radar detector to avoid the fuzz, we
turned to New York City-based Simmons Market Research. According to
Simmons, about 6 percent of licensed drivers own or lease a radar
detector. Fuzz-busters are most popular among young men: At least 1
in 10 male drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 use a radar
detector, as do 8 percent of men ages 25 to 34. Black motorists are
also more likely to use the electronic devices for advanced warning
of lurking officers: 9 percent say they own or lease a radar
detector, versus 6 percent of whites as well as of Hispanics.

Although Bo and Luke Duke, of The Dukes of Hazzard, may
not have had the luxury of a radar detector to avoid Sheriff Rosco,
their fellow Southerners sure do. Seven percent of drivers in the
South today say that they use a radar detector, making them the
most likely to use the device. Meanwhile, Westerners are the least
likely to use one; only 4 percent of drivers there say they possess
a radar detector. But then again, they never had to go one-on-one
with the likes of Boss Hogg.

A YARN ON KNIT GROWTH

To the Editors ofAmerican Demographics:

I was interested to hear that the
number of people taking up or returning to knitting has increased
dramatically since September 11, 2001. Do you have any statistics
that support this, and any details on what type of people â€”
their gender, age group, and socioeconomic level â€” are
picking up the knitting needles and crochet hooks these days?
Laurie A. Sperling
St. Louis, Mo.

Dear Laurie:

While â€œnestingâ€? experts speculate that the number of
knitters has increased since Sept. 11, there is very little data
available to verify it. For starters, much of the information that
we were able to find came from either the Hobby Industry
Association (HIA) or the Craft Yarn Council (CYC) â€” both of
which have a vested interest in the numbers telling a favorable
story. According to the HIA, sales of all needlecraft supplies
(including yarn, string, knitting needles, etc.) increased to $8.5
billion in 2002, from $7.4 billion in 2001. However, the number of
knitters reported by the association remained unchanged during that
same period. It would seem, then, that the same number of knitters
are working their needles in a frenzy to make a lot of
sweaters, scarves and baby blankets.

Meanwhile, the CYC has not released any new figures regarding
participation in knitting since 2000, when the organization found
that 38 million women nationwide know how to knit or crochet, up
from 34.7 million women in 1994. (The council does not distinguish
between knitting and crocheting, nor does it report the number of
men who are skilled knitters or crocheters.) Of course, just
because 38 million American women can knit or crochet
doesn't mean that they do.

For that figure we turned to the most solid source of data on
the topic that we could find: New York City-based research firm
Mediamark Research, Inc. (MRI). According to MRI, participation in
all needlecraft hobbies declined from 1999 to 2002 â€” except
for knitting. In 1999, 3,055,000 Americans (1.5 percent of the
adult population) said that they had taken up a knitting project in
the prior six months; by 2002 that number had risen to 3,353,000
(1.6 percent of the adult population). While an increase of just
under 300,000 knitters is not exactly â€œdramatic,â€?
nevertheless it's quite a respectable figure, considering that
during the same period the number of quilters declined by 138,000
and the number of cross-stitchers by 755,000.

What is perhaps even more significant than the fact that, by
attracting additional participants in recent years, knitting has
bucked the trend is that knitters today tend to be younger, better
educated and wealthier than they were in 1999. MRI reports that the
average knitter in 2002 was 55.7 years old, while knitters three
years before that were 56.8 years old, on average â€” quite a
feat, considering that the population of the United States as a
whole is aging. On top of that, 31 percent of all knitters today
have either a bachelor's degree or a postgraduate degree, versus
just 26 percent who held such a degree just before the turn of the
millennium. And with more schooling comes more money: In 2002, the
average knitter personally earned $39,756 a year, compared with
$31,640 earned by the average knitter in 1999. That $8,100
difference represents a lot more money knitters can spend on
yarn!

DEMOGRAPHIC PURLS OF WISDOM

Males are less likely to take up knitting today, but female
participants tend to be younger and to earn more than they did a
few years ago.